FFVII: Come Whatever May
by Ghost-Rewire
Summary: He spent years trying to keep his friends safe, then because of him they were put directly in the line of fire. Now when unexplained feelings come out of the woodwork, he will stop at nothing to save his friends... and his love. Come hell or high water.


hello everyone and welcome to the beginning of my second fic, before I continue on I want to say that What time left forgotten is NOT abandoned, I have every intention of finishing my first story. This story is set two years after advent children and cloud is gone again; this is also a tifa/cloud story because I am a huge fan of this couple. If you have any questions or ideas, leave me a review or private message, I always welcome anything so long as it's constructive. Without further adu… the story.

Disclaimer for all chapters: I do not own FFVII

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"Ring, ring… ring, ring… ring, ring… ring, ring…" Tifa Lockhart sat on her bed in the middle of Midgar city and sighed as the phone moved to an all too familiar voicemail. "This is cloud strife, I regret being unable to come to the phone, leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Beep….." Tifa switched the phone to her other ear and curled up into a ball "Hey Cloud, it's me, please answer your phone, it's been a year and a half since we have heard from you and we miss you cloud. Everyone misses you" tifa fought back tears as she gave the last line of her message. "I miss you Cloud… Please come home." She quickly hung up the phone and let it out; she always cried when she tried to call Cloud, she just missed him so much.

Everything was supposed to be perfect after the geostigma incident, for the first few weeks everything was perfect, Cloud was always smiling and playing with the kids, tifa even liked to think that they were seeing each other, though it was never official. And then one day he just left, the only thing giving a reason was a note on the fridge that said, 'I have to go, troubles coming and it's coming fast keep up your guard… Cloud' and that was it, no explanation no nothing, he was just gone. Her heart broke that day, though they were never official Tifa Lockhart loved cloud more than he would ever know, and she blamed herself for him leaving. If I had just told him how much I love him, she would think, he would have a reason to stay. So she sat there crying in her bed, she would get over it in a couple hours just before it was time to open up the 7th Heaven bar for the night, just like she had a million times over.

"Tifa" she heard a voice from the door. "Are you ok?" She turned and saw Marline in the doorway "You called Cloud again didn't you? Is he coming home?" She asked with excitement. Tifa looked the young girl up and down knowing she would have to break the news, it was always so hard because if there was anybody in the world that cared about Cloud as much as she did, it was Marline, he was the closest thing she had to a father.

"Maybe," tifa said trying to hold off the truth, after all, she never got a hold of him, she had no idea what Cloud was doing, but somewhere in the back of her heart she knew he wasn't on the way home, she just wasn't willing to accept it.

"He didn't answer his phone did he?" she said more of a statement than a question. Her face fell as she walked over and sat next to tifa.

Seeing the downcast look on her face Tifa wrapped her arms around the girl. "Hey, cheer up, he promised he'd come home didn't he? And I'm sure he has a good reason for not calling for so long." She couldn't stand to see such a strong girl so depressed. "come on, lets go get ready to open up shop."

(Elsewhere)

Cloud jumped away as he felt his sword finally connect with flesh. With a quick spin he whirled his sword around into a defensive position, ready for the next barrage of attacks. He had caught his three opponents off guard, and was able to quickly dispatch the weaker two in the group without much effort. But this one was deathly fast, Cloud wasn't too far behind him, but he did have the edge in speed. Luckily he had just been able to neutralize that advantage. He had just put a massive wound in this mystery mans right leg, but he also had to consider the injuries he obtained to make it happen. A decently sized gash in his shoulder was a good reminder, as were the multiple broken ribs he had obtained by fighting three opponents at once. Nevertheless his injuries were neither crippling nor serious at the moment so he pressed on. He was surprised to see that the barrage he was expecting never came. Looking over his opponent he found him squirming on the ground. It would seem that the final hit of clouds sword had done far more than cloud had planned, it seemed to be deep enough to just cut the tendons in the knee, leaving his opponent completely immobile. Without a moments hesitation he raised his hand and pointed it at the man. And the he snapped, and like his snap was the spark that lit up the sky, the man burst into flame. "Goodbye… and good riddance." Were clouds only words ad he turned to walk away.

That was the final attack… it was finally over. The three bodies laying on the ground. Three more deaths by his hand, but they were necessary in the very least. Walking over to his motorcycle he pulled a notebook out of his pocket. Inside only one page was written on and on that page were nothing but the numbers two through twenty in roman numerals, all of them marked out except 9, 8, 7, 3, and 2. "Just two left." He said to no one as he marked out 9, 8, and 7. "And then I'm rid of my demons." He pulled out his cell phone as he put the notebook back in his pocket; this had been something he had been avoiding for a long time. The messages he knew would be there from tifa tore him up inside, but this was his fight, and he knew if she ever heard about what he was doing there was no way she would let him go without her. Resigning himself to his fate he turned on the phone and let it betray him.

"You have one-hundred and forty-two new messages" his phone chimed "Ninety-six voicemails and forty-six texts. Have a nice day."

Cloud dropped the phone in surprise, that was outrageous. As he leaned down over his bike to pick up his phone something happened not even he had expected. Picking the phone up he put it back in his pocket to deal with later, instead he looked out over the skyline, the sun dropping from the sky had painted the horizon many a color. Almost absentmindedly he turned away, he was tired of watching sunsets, so tired of watching beautiful things fade. And what's worse is for some reason he always felt better in darkness, like it would comfort him for some reason. Maybe in the darkness he couldn't see his sins.

"Cloud Strife," He whipped around to see two hooded figures standing amongst the dead bodies. "You have a bad habit of killing my friends." The taller of the two spoke as he gestured to the fallen around him. "If you're not careful I'm going to start returning the favor." Cloud watched in horror as the smaller of the two pulled off her robe reveling her identity.

"Tifa…" he said in disbelief, it was true, and standing in front of him was Tifa Lockhart.

"No" 'Tifa' said as she changed back into her original form, a petit woman of maybe 20 with long golden hair. "Your precious girlfriend isn't under the gun yet, but you best be careful, we know them all Cloud, Barret, Yuffie, Cid, Red XIII, Reeve, and though we've yet been able to pin a location, we know about Vincent as well."

"Do be careful Cloud," said the other one. "It would be a shame if you were to cause the death of your loved ones. This is a warning, even you are in over your head, the next time we meet things will not go so smoothly." He finished with an evil laugh that sent a chill down clouds spine. And then disappeared in a wall of darkness.

_Escape materia, and copy materia, neither is easy to get. _Cloud thought as he dropped his guard. He hadn't felt power like that in a long time, just those two were probably stronger than the three he had just fought. _Tifa!!!!! _His mind hit home, despite all the questions swimming around in his head, he had to make sure tifa was safe; he would never forgive himself if he failed again. Hell, were it not for the geostigma incident, he would never have been able to get over failing to protect Aeris.

Never in the mans life had his body moved so fast, within moments of the thought he was already speeding towards Midgar on his motorcycle cell phone in hand. The numbers on the keypad were to slow; quickly he picked up speed dial and hit the only number still there, the 7th Heaven bar. As the phone rang Cloud was crunching number and possibilities in his head, how on earth did the organization find his friends, how long it was going to take him to get to Midgar, and what to do if they were lying and already kidnapped Tifa. They had better not have tifa, if they hurt tifa, there was no power on this or any other world that would be able to save them, come hell or high water.

"Pease answer, please answer" Cloud pleaded with the phone as it neared going to voice mail, but finally he heard the click on the other line that signified someone had answered.

"Hello, 7th Heaven bar is there something I can help you with." Cloud instantly recognized the voice on the other side of the line, Marline.

"Marline, its cloud," he said, voice full of urgency. "Is Tifa there?"

There was a long moment of pause before all excitement broke forth on the other end of the line. "Cloud!!!!!! Oh my god it's really yo…"

She was cut off as cloud spoke up. "Marline I know you want to talk but this is urgent, is Tifa there?" He repeated.

A little worried Marline softly replied "Yeah, I'll put her on." Cloud instantly hated himself; she was just a kid he had to remember. He had to do something to cheer her up.

"Marline," he said before she handed over the phone.

"Yeah Cloud?"

"I'm coming back. We can talk all day if you want to then ok?"

Cloud could almost feel the happiness radiate from the other end of the line, he could even hear Marline set the phone down and run off.

Needless to say the sight of a thirteen year old girl coming running through the back doors and into the bar of 7th heaven was a strange sight, but that was the episode as Marline came crashing through the swinging door and running up to Tifa who was serving drinks.

"Tifa… Tifa… Phone…" Marline said out of breath.

"Marline," Tifa scolded "How many times do I have to tell you you're not allowed behind the bar, and you've answered the phone a hundred times." She said giving that look that mothers have a way of giving, granted she wasn't Marline's mother, but she was damn good at the look.

Fighting through breath Marline managed to get two more words out before she had to breathe. "Phone… Cloud…"

That was all that needed be said, if you would have blinked you would have missed Tifa Lockhart move. She completely discarded the drink she was making dropping the glass on the floor.

"Heey," Said an obviously drunk man at the bar. "Whaat about my drink?"

"I think you've had enough." Tifa responded while running to the back.

The man at the bar sighed "Whaat are yoou talkin bout?" He said as he looked at his watch, reality hit him when he realized he couldn't read the numbers. "On second thought, maybe your righ."

Still running through the back Tifa spotted the phone and ran to pick it up.

"Hello, cloud." She said, her voice full of urgency.

Relief washed over Cloud Strife like a tidal wave, Tifa was ok. "Tifa, this is Cloud, I can't talk for long so I need to make this short, and I need your help Teef. I need you to call up all the old gang, all of them, and get them to the 7th Heaven bar as quickly as possible. Do you understand?"

"Cloud what's going on?" Tifa said worried.

"I'll tell you when I get there; can you get a hold of everybody?"

"Yeah." Tifa replied still lost.

"Thank you Teef, if you'll do me one more thing, I need you to track down Reno, tell him I'm calling in a favor." Cloud listened as he heard tifa make an affirmative noise on the other end. "Teef, until I get there don't go anywhere that isn't very public, and keep marline close. I'm coming back Teef, I'm sorry it took me so long."

Tifa was on the very edge of crying, this was the first time in a year and a half that she had talked to Cloud and he sounded like he was going full blast on his motorcycle running from hell itself. "No cloud," She said pouring her heart into the next few words. "You're coming home."

There were no goodbyes between them and cloud hung up the phone as if they were simply understood. He would be there inside of two days if he pushed it, lord knows he was pushing his bike now, he hadn't checked his speed in awhile but he knew he was doing well over a hundred, he may have even been working on one-fifty. Putting the phone back down he focused on the road, something he should have been doing the whole time at those speeds. Still he cursed himself; he spent so much time planning how not to get his friends involved and here they were, involved.

(Back at the bar)

Tifa slowly hung up the phone, as if her body and mind were denying the conversation was over, when she put the phone back in its place she collapsed into the chair beside it, so many thoughts running through her head. Still she put her priorities in order, despite the fact that she would be giving Cloud a piece of her mind when he returned, it was obvious he was scared of something, though it would have been invisible to anyone else she had a way of seeing through cloud. Her mind snapped back into the now and realized that she needed to call the others.

She wasted no time in calling up Barret, Yuffie, Red XIII, and cid. The others however were, difficult to get a hold of. Vincent still hadn't bought a cell phone and no one knew where reeve was at, hell they barely knew his name. After a moment of debate she decided those four would be enough, only cloud could ever get a hold of Vincent. Then she remembered Reno. It had been a long time since she had to talk to him. She didn't have anything against him. He still worked for Shinra, but Tifa was always glad to remember that Rufus had turn the company from the one that destroyed the world to one that was completely devoted to helping it. Shinra had gone straight. So she pulled out an old book by the phone containing random peoples numbers and started flipping through it, she was sure they had been given the number at one point or another. Then she saw it, a faded old number in the back. _Oh well, _she thought _here we go. _

Quickly she dialed the number but her mind was till elsewhere, what was happening to could to make him so afraid, why did he tell her to watch her guard, and what did he need Reno for. As far as she knew the two hadn't seen each other since the Geostigma. Then she heard the click on the other line.

"Hello," She heard the voice say

"Is this Reno?"

"The one and only, may I have the pleasure of knowing who I'm speaking too."

"Sorry, this is Tifa Lockhart."

"Whoa, there's a blast from the past, what's it been two years?"

"Yeah, listen we need you to come to the 7th Heaven bar."

There was a pause on the other end of the line. "For what?" He asked cautiously.

"I don't really know, but cloud says he needs your help."

"Listen Tifa it's not like I don't want too, but every time I get wrapped up in one of clouds problems I end up dodging bullets left and right. Sorry, I'm not in this one."

"Cloud said he was calling in a favor, though I don't know what it is."

She heard a few choice cuss words on the other side of the line. "Fine, I'm on my way, but it's going to take me about three days to get there." His voice was cold and hard. "And you tell cloud that if I do this we are even."

Sighing she hung the phone back on the hook, those two were so much alike, and yet so very different. She relaxed her arms and decided she would shut the bar down early today. She hadn't done that in awhile.

Marline soon came running down the stairs after cleaning up the glass from when tifa dropped the mans drink. "What did cloud say?" Se asked excited.

Tifa had to think about it for a moment, what did cloud say? It certainly wasn't much. And what he did say was that some serious trouble was coming, but she didn't want to worry marline. "He said he's coming home, and he promised to take you to the gold saucer for a whole day." She said. It was a lie, but she'd make Cloud do it, it would be just a little way of getting revenge for making her worry so much.

"Really?!?!" Marline's smile was infectious, even though Tifa knew that some hard times were coming she couldn't help but smile along with her.

"Really really. Now you head on to bed, I am going to go close the bar." Tifa replied.

"Oh but tifa… I'm not tired and I want to wait for Cloud, please can I just stay up this once." She said giving tifa her best puppy eyes.

"Marline, you have school tomorrow and Cloud won't be here till at least tomorrow night. Bed." She replied as she pointed to the stairs, leaving absolutely no room for discussion.

Knowing she was defeated Marline made her way up the stairs to her room as tifa went out and closed down the bar, after flipping the open sign to closed she paused and looked around her. The 7th Heaven bar was not the same rundown place it used to be, a place that used to only hold about 20 people would now hold well over fifty. It was now three stories instead of two and the entire place had been redone. It was then Tifa thought of the basement, practically a bomb shelter that had been the base of operations for Avalanche. Sighing she turned and moved to the hidden elevator. As it took her down her head moved through her memories as well, the basement hadn't been touched since the day they all left on that fateful adventure to stop Sephiroth, she had made sure of it. It was here in this dusty old room with nothing but a metal table and a few very outdated computers that she had first started her story. It took her a minute to realize that this was the first time she had been down here since they saved the world from meteor. That day what seemed like a lifetime ago they had simply set out to stop Shinra, then Cloud came along and they ended up saving the world. Who'd a thought it?

Riding the elevator back up she headed off to bed herself, something in her mind told her she was going to need her sleep

(Elsewhere)

The two robed figures stood looking out over the sea, the young blond had replaced her hood so you could no longer see her face. Yet she held herself with an air of uncertainty.

"Are you sure he is going to bite?" She asked the man beside her.

"Of course he is, otherwise I would not have done it."

"But we barely know his friends Names, much less where any of them but Tifa are… it's a risky play and you know it, if he decides to test us we can't make good on our threat, then there's nothing between him and us. And I for one know I can't beat him, can you?" She asked starting to get angry.

"Rin… Calm down. We did not come all this way to let a little possibility stop us, but even so you're right, I can't beat him. I am not a fool however, this is a chess game. As of now even together we would be defeated, but in time… in time there will be no one that can stop us. In time… Father will get rid of him for us. All we came here to do is buy more time, now that he thinks his precious Tifa is in danger he will go running off to Midgar to protect her. Do you see where this is going now Rin? Everything is under control." He replied in a calm voice. Like he had complete control of the situation.

"Yes, my apologies for my behavior."

"No need to apologize, you have simply worked hard to see father again and wish for everything to go smoothly." He turned with a smile. "Now I believe we need to get going." As the words came out of his mouth a wall of darkness erupted beside them, and a man in black robes stepped out.

"I trust you two were successful." He said

Rin looked up and down the man cautiously, though he was far more powerful that either of them, they were all three considered equals.

"Indeed it was. It would seem we are as well set up as the circumstances allow. All it takes now is time. When do you expect we will be ready?"

"Not for a month or two, we only have one shot, and your life rides on getting it right." The new man said

"True, come, let us toy with his mind a little more, I want him to shake in his boots when he thinks about us." He said as he opened another portal.

"I like the way you think."

(1:00 the following day.)

Tifa was still sitting and waiting, though she was glad to say that at least now she had company, Cid, having the airship left from there previous adventures had already made it there, surprisingly with Shera and Yuffie in tow. She had also been surprised to learn that Shera and Cid were finally married.

"So how exactly did Yuffie end up coming with you guys again?" Tifa asked.

"Oh." Replied the younger ninja, who also happened to be her best friend. "I was in the Neighborhood when you called, picking some stuff up that we cant get at home. When you called I instantly went to Cid's before my free ride here left without me."

Tifa should have known, despite her complete respect for the younger ninja, she was cheap, and devious, and there was no getting around it.

"Soooooooo, other than my wonderful company," Yuffie started. "What did you want us to come so quickly for?"

"She has a point." Cid intervened. "You didn't tell us nothing on the phone cept it was important."

"Well, actually cloud said he needed everybody here." Tifa replied.

"You got a hold a cloud strife, how the hell is he, I couldn't even get em to tell em I was getting married." Cid said jumping out of his seat. Until he noticed the downcast look on Tifa's face. Yuffie noticed it too and instantly moved over to her friend. "Cloud…. He's still fighting. I can't understand why trouble seems to follow him around like a bad habit. When he called me it sounded like he was going full out on his motorcycle, he sounded like he was running from something, and he sounded like he was scared."

The last couple words hit home in cid and yuffie's mind, not so much with Shera but she had never really met Cloud. When it came right down to it, cloud didn't get scared, the only time they had seen him scared was when they lost Aeris, hell he was barely considered rillied when they went into the great creator to fight Sephiroth himself.

"I don't get it" Shera said from the corner. "Everybody gets scared. I'm scared of spiders."

Cid walked over to his wife and hugged her. "Sorry Shera, I guess you were kind of out of the loop there. Cloud strife doesn't get scared, it just doesn't happen. There are only two people in history that have seen cloud strife afraid, one of them is dead."

"Aeris…" Shera deducted. "So who's the other?"

An uncomfortable silence fell over the seventh Heaven bar as Cid and Yuffie turned to Tifa. And Tifa herself shied away almost subconsciously. "It was me," Tifa said slowly, as if testing her voice. It wasn't a memory she particularly liked. "We fell into the lifestream, and for the first time in my life I saw cloud strife afraid. It was so… unreal to see someone like him so vulnerable. The strongest person I knew was completely and utterly helpless. I suppose you'll see it when he gets here. But cloud doesn't drop his guard no matter where he is, everything he does has a purpose and he is always prepared for the worst. You don't want to see him the way I saw him those years ago." Tifa sighed as she finished. "If you don't mind, it's not really something I like to talk about."

Hearing the undertone in Tifa's voice Shera nodded and dropped the subject, she was after all, a guest.

(Elsewhere)

The wind bit harshly into his skin as he pushed his bike to the limits, his injuries were getting worse, and thanks to the gash in his shoulder he was losing blood faster than he should have, but he didn't care, Tifa came first. With a master's skill and pinpoint precision he weaved his way through the rock outcroppings that stuck up from the ground. He knew the place well; this was where he had his first run in with Kadaj's gang. This was where all this chaos started. With perfect timing he slammed on the breaks and brought the bike to a skidding halt. It took up some space. You don't stop anything going 150 MPH on a dime. But as the bike came to a halt Cloud looked out over the skyline, he could see it now, off in the distance. If he was lucky he could get there tonight, though he would come in late. Without a moments hesitation he pulled the bike around and set off again, hell itself wouldn't be able to stop him from getting back. _No, _he thought. _Not back… home. _

(11:00 that night.)

Cloud strife walked slowly through the empty streets of Midgar, his bike long deserted for his inability to hold control, even now each step seemed impossible, he could feel himself losing consciousness due to loss of blood, and he could see the darkness enveloping his vision. The world was going black quickly. But suddenly he saw a flash of red, it would be the last thing he would see before his body gave out, and cloud strife fell to the ground and lost consciousness. No more than 12 blocks away from the 7th heaven bar.

(11:30 at the 7th heaven bar)

No one was asleep, marline included, Tifa saw that since she didn't have school tomorrow she could stay up and wait for cloud. And so they all sat gathered in the living room trying and failing to break the uncomfortable silence that came from waiting for cloud, no one had seen him in two years after all. Even when someone tried to start up a conversation it would die almost immediately, so after a while everyone just gave up. They sat there for what seemed like days, months, years. Tifa would have sworn that the tick of the clock on the wall was getting slower.

Suddenly a great crash echoed through the room as the door crashed open. All present turned to the door as a look of shock spread through the room. There in the doorway was a blood drenched Vincent Valentine, Cloud unconscious and bleeding in his arms.

Despite the situation, Vincent was Vincent. "Where is the hospital?" he said in his emotionless voice. Looking around the room he realized that no one had yet picked there jaw up off the floor. "With all due respect, time is of the essence, and also something we have very little of. And so I repeat myself, where is the hospital?" He repeated.

Shera, cid, and Yuffie all came too pretty quickly, Marline not long after them, but Yuffie took one look at Tifa and knew she was gone, frozen in fear. She also knew it would be awhile before she snapped out of it, and when she did she wouldn't be much help for a while. So with haste Yuffie took off out the door motioning for Vincent to follow, she knew the way to the hospital, she had been there many times, and no one else was up to moving yet.

The others, Tifa excluded, fully came around after seeing Yuffie bolt. Shera instantly took to calming Marline, who was now shaking and covered in tears. And cid took to setting Tifa to sit down and bring her back to reality, by the looks of which, neither would be an easy task.

Tifa was still in shock, but marline took to quite a fuss, suddenly a very strong 13 year old girl was a helpless six years old. And all she could do was cry out through tears. "I WANT TO SEE CLOUD, WHAT HAPPENED TO CLOUD???" she yelled in a high pitched voice through her tears. Using a natural mother's instinct Shera wrapped her arms around the girl in one swift movement, effectively causing the screaming to cease, though it did nothing for the tears, and she was still visibly shaking. "It's okay." She said in her best calming voice. "Everything's going to be alright. Calm down, were going to find out what happened real soon." She continued as she looked marline in the eyes. She was happy to find that the young girl was calming down. "You go on to bed now okay, the grownups need to talk."

At first marline thought about resisting, but she saw the condition that Tifa was in and quickly complied, the morning would come and Tifa would make sense of everything, just like she always did.

That was all she could tell herself as she fell in bed, Tifa always knew what to do. By tomorrow morning, Tifa would have everything back to normal and be running the place like it was just another day… she hoped.

Downstairs it was quite another thing, they had barely gotten Tifa out of shock and the first thing she did was start bawling and crying out Clouds name. Shera sighed, she knew she was going to have to take control of the situation, she loved him, but her husband just wasn't good when it came to situations like these. He always said he couldn't figure what all the cryin was for. After the settled Tifa into the sofa with a cup of tea Shera dragged her husband into the kitchen… literally.

"What's gotten into you?"

Shera sighed… men. "We could start with the fact that a man just came through the door with injuries that could be life threatening."

Cid instantly recognized the undertone in his wife's voice. "Sorry Shera, I'm just worried about my friends."

"I know… which is why I brought you in here. I need you to promise me you won't help Tifa in any way." She replied.

"What??"

"Just trust me; this is something Tifa needs to work out for herself. Just let her sleep on it ok?"

Seeing the look in her eye's even he was smart enough to know that Shera was the wiser in this situation. "Very well, I promise." He said with a nod as turned toward there room. "I'm going to head off to bed; something tells me were going to need our strength tomorrow."

"True," Shera said as she walked next to her husband to there room. "Something tells me your right."

They would all find the house particularly quite that night.

Dawn broke all to early for most people, especially Yuffie who had come in very late after getting cloud to the hospital, surprising she had to do nothing to get Vincent to come back with her. She expected him to at least put up a fight.

Tifa awoke from yet anther dream, yet another dream she would have given anything to turn to reality. She would have also given anything for what she saw last night to be a dream. That cloud wasn't really injured, that he was going to step through the door and greet them any second. Unfortunately she knew that particular part of the night was no dream. Though her body was desperately fighting the order she swung her legs around and set them firmly on the floor. She was surprised to find herself in her bed. cid must have carried her there since Shera and Yuffie couldn't lift her, and she was pretty sure she fell out on the couch. Never the less she pushed herself up and took a look at the clock. 11:37… she never woke up this late. It was kind of a nice feeling. Quickly getting dressed she headed down stairs. It was of no surprise to find everyone in the living room, now the party included red XIII; she figured he must have come in this morning. Judging by his appearance however, it was clear he had already been briefed. While she may still be half asleep, she noticed that the look was unanimous. It was then that Vincent stood up.

"It is clear that some things have transpired within the last few days." He said as he looked around the room. "While I regret that Barret is not here as of yet I have something to say to all of you. Unfortunately I too am guilty of this act. Since we all took on the trip to the great crater we have all had two things in common. One, we were all part of saving our world, But two, we all began to look upon cloud strife as a god, as superman." The flat truth and the fact that he was so to the point left most of the people in the room shocked. Cid and Yuffie were about to burst in protest but Vincent held up his hand. "Don't believe me? Tell me Yuffie it's been awfully quite in Wutai for the past two years hasn't it?"

All eyes turned to Yuffie who took up a thoughtful pose for a moment. "Now that you mention it, the guard hasn't had anything but minor beast problems."

"And you red XIII, things have been awfully peaceful in Cosmo Canyon as well haven't they."

Red XIII simply nodded.

"And let's not overlook the fact that Midgar has gone through two years without a single major threat, tell me Tifa about how long was it between threats before the Geostigma incident?"

Tifa sighed as she realized how true this all was. "Almost monthly." She replied, she knew, she had to take care of some of them by herself, being the strongest martial artist in a 500 mile radius.

"For the past two years Cloud has been traveling the world fighting battle after battle so we wouldn't have to. He's been protecting all of us while fighting his own battles at the same time. One man can only take so much. And that's all he is in the end… just one man. One man who happens to be an exceptional fighter. But I have more news, if you cut Cloud Strife he bleeds. He is human, and he is killing himself trying to protect everyone. I suppose you all don't know the reason why cloud called you all here do you?" he took a good long look around the room.

"I thought he needed our help." Yuffie admitted.

"He does Yuffie… so much more than he knows he needs our help. But that's not why he called you here; he did that to protect you all from one of his battles. He brought you all here to protect you. He went full out on his motorcycle for a day and a half completely ignoring a list of injuries that would probably cripple one of us; just so he could make sure you were all safe. Cloud called us all here to protect us, but while he doesn't know it. We aren't the ones that need protecting. He has fought more than his fair share of our battles. I think it's about time we started helping with his. Whatever cloud is fighting, I for one will be right there beside him, he has earned that much and more, I will follow Cloud through hell itself to help him live in peace. I just wanted to get this out there, I hope you all understand what I'm saying by this." A long bout of silence hung over the room as Vincent's words set in. that was an awfully long speech from someone who never talked.

"How do you know all this?" Tifa finally spoke up.

"For the past two years I have been following Cloud. I knew he was going to push himself over the edge one day; it was simply a matter of time. That and someone has to watch over someone to busy to watch over themselves." He answered statically.

"Ok… do you know what were up against?" Yuffie asked.

"Unfortunately no… the only info I have is that for the past year and a half Cloud has been tracking a group of men in robes." He paused knowing they would not like what he said next. "As far as I can find they have some connection to Sephiroth."

A unanimous look of disgust washed over the room. That name had been the source of all there problems, and all there greatest fears. After a few minutes

"There is also a rumor," Vincent continued. "That before we defeated him Sephiroth found and sided with the fabled Crimson Rain mage." The feeling in the room went from disgust to surprise in an instant. Except in Shera's case where she found herself confused.

"Ummm…" she spoke up. "Who is that?"

Everyone in the room turned to look at her, "you mean you haven't heard the stories?" Cid asked.

"No, I've never heard of a Crimson Rain Mage." She paused and looked at the other questioningly.

"Than allow me to catch you up," Vincent said, "you are familiar with the forgotten city correct?"

"Yes."

"Well, obviously at one point in time it was not so forgotten. At one point in time it flourished. The only story as to how the city was killed was by a group of travelers who where making there way there. It was said that they noticed an unusually red storm over the city the night before they made it. When they arrived the next morning, it was said there wasn't a thing that wasn't covered in blood. And the travelers went on to say that the only way there could be that much blood was that it rained blood the night before, but there was only one person left alive in a city that the night before had held thousands of people. A boy was said to be found walking aimlessly in the road. It is said that he spoke mostly nonsense, but spoke of a man with blood red eyes standing in the middle of the city simply murdering everyone in cold blood, using some unknown magic, the boy said he never once picked up a weapon. And so the travelers took word as quick as they could to the nearest town. Dubbing the man who did it the Crimson Rain Mage."

The room went silent again for a while, almost everyone knew the story, but that was what it had always been, just a story, there was no way anyone was that powerful. Slowly Tifa took her eyes off Vincent and scanned the room. She couldn't help but hear a hint of hatred in Vincent's voice as he told the story, like he held a personal grudge against it.

Then she noticed someone else was still missing.

"Where's Marline?"

"She's at the Hospital with Cloud; I dropped her off this morning." Shera said.

Tifa's face half lit up and half fell at the mention of Cloud, it meant he was home, but it also meant he was in the hospital which, in turn, meant he was still fighting. "How is he?"

"He'll live, they want'a kill that boy they gonna have to try a lot harder than that. Hell wouldn't surprise me if he was up on his feet already." Cid replied "You should go see him."

"I'll do that, is he awake yet?"

"It's possible" Yuffie said. "Cloud heals unusually fast, but I would put any money on it."

"Let's go see him," Tifa said as she forced out a smile. "I bet he could use the company."

The hospital was surprisingly quite as the group walked in, not lined with people, no one complaining, it seemed more orderly than normal. Of course a group there size and with there own unique styles and personalities livened things up a bit.

"Excuse me." Tifa asked the woman at the counter.

"Yes, is there something I can help you with?" She replied with a smile.

"Can you tell me what room Cloud Strife is in?"

"Yes, are you all going to visit?"

"Yes."

"Then please sign in, and I'm sorry but we don't allow pets in the visiting rooms, someone will have to stay out here with him." She said as she motioned to Red XIII

"Oh…" Tifa paused for a minute "He's our friend, not our pet." Tifa said with a smile.

"Regardless of what you call him he is still an animal, and will have to wait out here." After hearing this line red XIII rolled his eyes

"Excuse me," he said, the lady at the counter began furiously looking around, unable to find where the voice was coming from she looked at Tifa for help, and found herself shocked when Tifa pointed to Red.

The lady behind the counter slowly turned to look at what she had just called an animal and find him smirking. "Y-You can talk?"

"Yes, I can talk, my home language, English, Spanish, French, and multiple other smaller languages, though I tried to learn Japanese it just never worked for me. Now I'll have you know that I have stood beside the man we are trying to see amidst one of the greatest threats ever to come to this world, I have fought three major wars and have been around for 367 years, well older that you I believe. I want to get in to see my friend, and I'm nobodies pet." Red said in a calm but demanding voice.

The poor lady behind the counter damn near wet herself. "Room 273" She said quickly.

"Thank you." Red Replied as the gang took off. Once they had gotten a little further down the hall cid could hold it in no longer.

"Geez Red, I understand you might have taken some offense to some of the things she said. But you damn near gave that girl a heart attack." Cid commented through the laughter that was forcing its way out.

"Cid… Language."

"Sorry Shera. You almost gave the poor girl a heart attack."

"Well, just because I choose not to speak and the fact that my appearance is different than your does not make me any lesser that you. I take personal offense to anyone that thinks I am nothing but a beast, I am just as civil as any of you." Red replied as they neared clouds room, Tifa could hardly hold herself from busting down the door. Carefully however she placed her hand on the handle and with a deep breath pushed open the door.

The room inside was a brilliant white as all hospital rooms were, but upon entering she could feel the weight of the world as if the air was thick with guilt, or perhaps…. Hope.

"TIFA," she heard the words just as she felt marline grab her in hug. "Tifa, Tifa, he's awake." Marline said quickly as she practically dragged Tifa over to the bed. There she saw cloud, still out of it.

"But he was awake a few minutes ago." Marline said as she looked over cloud.

"He just needs sleep; he will wake up in a little bit." Tifa replied trying to soothe the girl.

"Yeah." Marline said as she shook her head. "He said he wanted to talk to you."

"Me?"

"Yup, he said he had something to tell everyone but first he had to talk to you." She replied. "I asked him how he got hurt so bad, said he fell off his bike while swerving to miss a dog. I swear Tifa I think you need to take that bike away from him before he hurts himself on it again."

Tifa just laughed; of course cloud would say something that wouldn't worry marline. But even if she didn't know how he actually got hurt she wouldn't have believed that lie, cloud had just as much skill on that motorcycle as he did with a sword in his hand. He could have dodged a whole pack of dogs on one wheel and it wouldn't even have fazed him.

"Plus I was going to ask him when he was going to take us to the gold saucer like he promised but the nurse came in." Marline finished with a depressed look.

"Did I say that?" Tifa and Marline heard weakly from behind them. They both whipped around to see cloud pushing himself upright in the bed. "Good morning everyone." He said with a sheepish smile.

Tifa slowly walked over to the bed, put her hand on his, and smiled. "Welcome home Cloud, and as a matter of fact you did."

_-----------------------------------_

Well there you have it folks, the first chapter of Come whatever may. I hope you all enjoyed it, leave me a review if you have any questions, comments, or ideas.

Peace out.

Ghost…


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